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About a week later, I was on Facebook looking around and saw that my friend had posted some photos from her baby shower. I looked at the picture and it was a picture of her, me, and the other third that we had posed for right before the shower began. The caption read, “I would like to thank Jen and _____ for giving me my baby shower…” I honestly don’t remember the rest of it. I was the one who collaborated with my friend and her family to plan the shower. I was the one who spent the money on the decorations, the games, the prizes, all of it! The other third comes back into the country a week prior to the shower, brings a dish, and gets 1/2 the credit for myhard work?? I was seething! I’d suspected I was being used, and now after seeing that, I knew I had! I felt like I didn’t even know who this person was anymore! I did know that I couldn’t talk to her until I was calmer, and it took me a couple of months at least. During that time, if she called I would let it go to voice mail. I didn’t want to write her off just yet; I felt I at least owed it to her to tell her how I felt and give her a chance. I also knew that if I talked to her before I was ready, the conversation wouldn’t go well. I knew in my gut that she would turn the issue back onto me and make it about how I’m too sensitive or how I’d overreacted. As hurt and angry as I was, I didn’t want to end up saying things I didn’t mean or that I couldn’t take back. Several weeks later, my husband ran into her and she made a snide remark about me not returning her calls. When he mentioned it to me, l couldn’t help but laugh at the irony. Although she was guilty of the same thing, when I brought it up to her, she told me to stop being so sensitive!

It was now December. Eight months had passed since the baby shower. In that time I’d gone to her home to see her baby, had a nice visit, and afterwards I decided again it was best to keep things to myself. I so desperately wanted to be wrong when it came to her! As usual, it would only be a matter of time before something else would happen to have me kicking myself for not speaking up when I had the chance…

After a while, the other part of the threesome moved a few hours away for a job and though we spoke a lot at first, after a while I was out of sight and out of mind. I started to see things on Facebook that would perplex me. She would come to town and not bother to mention it. She would go out with mutual friends and I’d see pictures with her tagged in them. The worst was when I asked her what she was doing for her birthday because I wanted to treat her to dinner. She told me that she was spending it with family, but maybe we could go to dinner the following day. The following day came and went. I called her several times and left messages. She said she’d fallen asleep. That evening, I was on my Facebook page looking around and what do I see? Pictures from her “family” birthday celebration with none other than the “other third” in attendance. Although I tried not to let it bother me, it did. It felt like a slap in the face. First I was confused, then I was angry, then I was hurt. Still, I said nothing.

A few months later, she and I were talking on the phone. She was telling me about her new job, and she mentioned how busy she had been. I remember thinking that she couldn’t have been too incredibly busy; after all she’d been to town several times and had gone places with mutual friends, but hadn’t bothered with me in months. I wanted to call her out on it, but didn’t; thinking it wasn’t my place to question her activities. She could do what she wanted. I was upset about it, but as usual, I just stuffed it down deep and left it there. Another couple of weeks went by and she called to ask me a question that left me in awe at the sheer nerve of the request. She asked me to give her a baby shower. With every ounce of my being I wanted to say no, but I didn’t. I heard myself agreeing before I could believe what I was saying!

After the call was over, I remember sitting there trying to rationalize it to myself. Why me? Well, the other third was out of the country again. Was that it? Always trying to see the good in people, I decided she must not have anyone else she felt comfortable asking. She had family that was more than capable, but for whatever reason she didn’t seem to want to ask them to do it. During the time I was busy planning her baby shower, buying invitations, making up games, purchasing decorations and making party favors, I would speak to her once in a while. The conversations were usually about her shower and a little bit of small talk. The day of the shower came and everything went well, although I felt really uncomfortable. I didn’t know why; we’d been friends for years, but something just felt off. A week or so after the shower I finally figured it out…

I’d started to feel better about myself and working with my life coach, I was able to pin point why I felt the way I did. After releasing all of the negative energy from my work environment, I still felt burdened. My life coach asked me some very pointed questions, and while answering them I realized that I felt judged and mistreated; much the same way I felt when I was working for my previous employer. We talked about why I didn’t express how I felt to my friends. I told her that I really thought that if I told them I felt I had been mistreated, the friendships would end. Then she said something that really hit home, “If you truly feel that if you tell these women, who say they are your friends, how they’ve hurt you by belittling you and treating you as though your needs, wants, and feelings don’t matter; then are they really people you should call friends? Friends are the people in your life who support you, uplift you, and make you laugh when you really want to cry. I don’t see any of this for you with these women. When is the last time you actually felt happy, supported, or uplifted after spending time with them?” To tell the truth, I felt like shit more often than not afterwards. I had to admit, she made a good point. These “friendships”were nothing but struggle and emotional turmoil during a time in my life when I’d had enough of that without adding more fuel to the fire. Ultimately the question that needed to be answered was: why was I putting up with it?

I did take the time to self reflect. What behavior of mine could have caused this issue? Was there a pattern? Something I needed to change? Yes! I never said no. I’d wanted to at times, but just couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. I wanted to make people happy, even if that meant making myself miserable in the process. I’d been that way since I could remember. I had a very hard time with conflict and confrontation if I was defending myself. I had no problem with it if I was defending someone else. My feelings were just as important as anyone else’s; weren’t they? I promised myself that moving forward, I would start saying no if I wanted to say no and if something someone did or said upset me, I’d tell them. Have you ever made a decision that was fairly easy to make, but carrying it out was much more difficult? Me too.

There were two people in particular I knew I had to handle right off. Thinking back about it now, I can honestly say that I had allowed them both to bully me so much that they actually had me convinced that I was wrong to feel the way I did! When there were times I happened to disagree with them on something, they would tag team and take their turns making snide remarks and wise cracks disguised as playful teasing. They definitely took advantage of knowing how to get a rise out of me. Eventually one of them went out of the country for several months. During that time things seemed to improve. The other third of the trio did return; however, and I found myself right back where I started. The more time the two of them spent together, the more they began to act alike; like they’d both just stepped off the set of Mean Girls. Now I had a dilemma. I didn’t like how I felt when it was all three of us, but when the other third wasn’t around, things were fine. I didn’t feel I could bring the issue up just yet, so there was no more trio. When she was in the picture, I wasn’t, and that’s how it went for some time until I had no choice but to lay all of my cards out on the table…

At some point in our lives, we have probably all heard the phrase, “fair weather friends.” It refers to those people in your life who love to be around you when things are good and as soon as you show any sign that you might possibly need something from them they take the proverbial hike. They go MIA. They stop answering their phone. Things are going well for them, so you haven’t heard from them in…how long has it been? I wouldn’t have those kinds of friends, would I?

I have always been the person people knew they could go to in a crisis. If they called and were upset and hurting, I wouldn’t tell them they were intruding on the date night I’d finally managed to get a sitter for. I recall countless times being on the phone with this person, or that person for hours lending an ear, and sacrificing precious time with my husband and kids as a result. My husband would give me “the look.” It’s the look that I came to know as his, “You’re on the phone AGAIN,” look. There was another look he’d give me when he’d had enough of me being unavailable to the family due to some crisis someone else was having. Quality time for the two of us was scarce as it was, and I’d managed to spend most; if not all of it, on the phone consoling a friend or family member through yet another drama.

Digging deep and taking an honest look at my friendships wasn’t easy, and by doing so I noticed a disturbing fact. Many of those very same people I’d consistently sacrificed hours for weren’t there for me when the roles were reversed. Truthfully, it always bothered me that although I respected their time and took their feelings into consideration, I wasn’t given the same courtesy. When I needed emotional support or to talk about something that was upsetting me, the subject would get changed and I’d find myself engaged in another conversation about them. After a while, it got to the point where I’d call; no answer. I’d leave a message, they wouldn’t call back. At first it just seemed as if they were avoiding me; then I knew they were. If I got fed up enough to mention it, I was always brushed off. It made me feel like my expectations of my friends were unrealistic. “You’re so needy.” “You take everything way too personally.” “You’re too sensitive.” “I don’t understand why you let things bother you so much. You’re overreacting.” “You took it wrong.” “You’re so negative.” “If all you want to talk about is drama, I don’t have time for it. I’ve got enough going on in my life.” Those responses hurt. After all, aren’t your friends supposed to care about you? These were the same people I’d been there for over and over. Were there times when they called me to vent that I wanted to tell them their actions and choices caused the issues they were having? Of course there were! Did I actually do it? Of course not! Why? Because I cared enough about their feelings not to. I felt it wasn’t my place to judge or criticize them; only to be there for them. I started to see a pattern. As long as I didn’t assert myself, or call them out for their selfish behavior, everything was fine. As soon as I started to question their motives or actions, there was nothing but conflict. No matter what the situation, I was made wrong for allowing whatever it was to bother me. It became obvious to me that being right for them was more important than my feelings or anything else. Things got to the point that I decided it wasn’t worth saying anything at all. I’d just end up feeling like shit and nothing would get resolved anyway. It was easier to just avoid the entire issue altogether. So for months, that’s what I did.

Most people get to a certain point in their lives and start to evaluate; especially after something significant happens that causes them to be faced with a major life change or their own mortality. The death of a relative, getting married, having kids, losing a job, turning 40, or any other life changing event or milestone can prompt you to take stock of your situation.

After I lost my job, I had plenty of free time to take a good, long look at mine. I did have a lot to be thankful for. I had my health, a nice home, 3 beautiful kids, and a husband who was everything I could ever hope for. But..I still didn’t have joy in my life. Life seemed daunting, hard, a struggle to get through most days, and I couldn’t figure out why. The two main causes of stress in my life; my oldest daughter and my job, had now been reduced by half. As a parent, I knew I needed to figure something out. I was tired of being miserable! In my opinion, you can’t be a good parent and take care of your kids if you don’t know how to take care of yourself.

I had read that a gratitude journal could help change one’s focus from the negative to the positive things in life, so I decided to give it a try. One of the things the article suggested was to think of the people in your life who support you. These people are the ones who want to see you succeed, do well, be happy, and are there for you no matter what. I wrote down the people who came to my mind first; my husband, my parents, my life coach, my therapist, my aunt, and my mother-in-law. Then I started to think about my friends. Friends support you, right?

I have two really great friends that I met after my husband and I got married in 1994, and we’ve been friends through all the military moves to different states and countries. No matter the amount of miles separating us, or how often we saw each other or spoke on the phone, we could always pick up right where we left off as if no time had gone by. I wrote these two friends down. The friends I had made more recently, I’d made at my job. After I examined my friendships with them further, I decided that they weren’t really friends.

Had I gotten it wrong somehow? Maybe somewhere along the way, I’d gotten the wrong idea about what a friend is supposed to be. After all, these days with Facebook and Twitter, a “friend” is just someone you know or that your friends know. Was it possible that I’d misinterpreted the meaning of that word all this time? I had managed to take a task meant to change my outlook, and turn it into a reality check.

I’ve always had a hard time making friends. Later, after finding out about my gifts, I would learn that it’s always difficult for an empath to trust, due to our ability to read others. I know when people are being honest and sincere and when they’re not. Maybe because most of my “friends” were at least 5 or 6 years younger than me, didn’t have kids, weren’t married, etc., I expected too much from them. The only basis for comparison I had was how Itreated them. I was there for my friends to confide in and rely on. I was there for support, to have fun with and commiserate with. I considered their feelings, was honest with them, and I didn’t judge them if their opinion was different from mine. I was there to give advice if they asked for it. I valued each one of them as a person, treated them with respect, and they knew I genuinely cared. I realized that they were benefiting much more from being friends with me than I was from being friends with them. As a matter of fact, when I reached out to them for support, they usually made me feel worse; not better!

I’ve been told I am a powerful manifestor. I have to agree. Whatever I’m focusing on…positive or negative…will usually manifest. This is a wonderful gift when I’m focusing on something I want. When I was stuck in negativity and playing a victim role, I was focusing on the things I didn’t want. As you can imagine, during that time it didn’t seem so much as a gift as it did a curse. I spent a long time thinking I had the worst luck, and if anything was going to happen that was shitty…yep, it would happen to me. I lived life waiting for the other shoe to drop with an outlook that was very pessimistic. I believe that if you spend your time focusing only on the negative things that happen, that is all that you are going to notice. You may even be attracting more negativity toward you, without realizing it. Like attracts like.

I wanted change. I attracted change. It wasn’t exactly how I imagined it, but it happened nonetheless. After taking that 30 Day course and losing my job, I became convinced that it was my lack of self-esteem that led me there. To put it very simply, I felt that my insecurity projected out to people around me, and they treated me the way I thought I deserved to be treated. I now found myself with a dilemma. The analytical part of my brain couldn’t accept this notion that if I just changed my thinking, POOF, my life would change. I could have the joy, confidence, and security I wanted with no limits? “Yeah, right,” my inner critic would sarcastically exclaim. As it turned out, my inner self, and I were both right.

As a result of the incredible changes I was able to make in such a short time, I found myself looking for anything I could find under the heading “Self Help”. I devoured all I could. Some of it was very useful. Some of it wasn’t. After realizing that I wasn’t going to find what I needed in a book, I decided that I needed to be able to speak to someone live, one on one, so that I could get answers to my questions. I liked the free course I took and it helped so much more than I expected it would, that when the time came for a paid course I was interested in, I decided to go for it. The price was reasonable to me, and I did receive a severance when I got fired, so I figured I’d benefit not only myself by taking it, but my family and my next employer as well. The course brought together many different coaches on various topics, and I was like a sponge soaking up all I could. One guest in particular resonated with me so much that I decided to take her up on her offer for a free call with her.

I was so nervous before the call that I almost chickened out! I had made a promise to myself that I would never let insecurity or fear stand in the way of something that could benefit me ever again, and I forced myself to keep the appointment. It was the first time that I had ever given myself permission to be vulnerable and allow someone else to help me instead of me helping everyone else. I had spent much of my life being the strong one, the nurturer, the peacemaker, the bigger person. In return I’d gotten heartache and betrayal. I had to find out what I was doing wrong!

It was 4 months prior to me getting fired, but I already felt like a failure both in my career and as a mother. I really knew and felt that it was only a matter of time before my entire house of cards came tumbling down around me. I was depressed, bitter, angry, restless, and felt helpless…not me at all. The day I typed, “I hate my life” in the Google search was one of my most desperate days ever. I knew I was headed for disaster. I felt like I was on my way toward some kind of a breakdown. I didn’t like how I felt and I was desperately searching for a life line. I sent out a soul call that day.

A soul call is a cry for help that one sends out into the universe; sometimes knowingly, most of the time unknowingly. I didn’t know it that day, but when I Googled, “I hate my life,” I sent out a call asking for help. I couldn’t see the computer screen because of tears that had welled up in my eyes; which only served to make me angry. I was sick and tired of crying, hurting, and being misunderstood. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired! I managed to calm myself enough to read the search results and clicked the link that would later change my life. I remember thinking, “Like this is going to help.” It just goes to show how powerful soul calls actually are. Soul calls are like prayers in that they are very powerful and they are always answered, but often not the way we think they will be. For instance, I thought I was asking for help to keep my job. Little did I know that 4 months later it would be a moot point. I was asking for my life to change, and my desperation caused it to happen the fastest way possible!

Things did change– so quickly and drastically since then — sometimes it feels like a different lifetime. All of the things that have happened in that one short year still boggle my mind. Having worked my way through and overcome each obstacle as it came, I know all were for my good. In retrospect, getting fired from my job was just how things had to happen so the change I wanted so desperately could manifest. I closed the door on that portion of my life, causing another one to open; then another, and another, until once again I find myself facing yet another door. Do I leave it closed? Do I open it and walk through? Getting fired wasn’t the hardest thing I would face in that year.